Was Jesus Racist?

Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.’ Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, ‘Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’ The woman came and knelt before him. ‘Lord, help me!’ she said. He replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.’ ‘Yes it is, Lord,’ she said. ‘Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’ Then Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed at that moment. (Matt 15:21-28)

What do we do about the fact that Jesus compared this poor woman to a dog? An article from 2016 about this Bible story concluded that Jesus’ statement was full of prejudice and ethnocentrism (the evaluation of other cultures by the standards and customs of our own culture). But there is good news, says the author. Jesus doesn’t cling to his prejudice. He listens to the woman. The outsider. The other. And he changes his mind. Thus the hero of this story is not Jesus, but the Canaanite woman. Because of her courage to challenge Jesus, he proceeds to miraculously feed 4000 Gentiles.

As you can probably guess, I don’t think this is what we are supposed to learn from this story. As Andrew Wilson notes, much of Matthew 13–16 is about bread. The parables in Matthew 13 are mostly about seed, wheat, yeast, and flour, which provoked Jesus’ listeners to respond in one of two ways: allow the seed of the message of the kingdom to take root and bear fruit in your lives, or decide this isn’t for you. Some of the Jews (‘the lost sheep of Israel’) were embracing him as the fulfillment of their hopes and dreams, but many others - especially religious leaders - were disappointed or angry that Jesus’ kingdom wasn’t fulfilling their expectations. Notice the following chain of events in chapters 14-16:

1. Jesus fed a crowd of over 5,000 Jews with just five loaves of bread, and there was plenty leftover (Matt 14:13-21)

2. Pharisees confronted Jesus because his disciples weren’t following their unbiblical traditions about eating food, which excluded Gentiles. (Matt 15:1-20)

3. Jesus travels to Gentile territory. The Canaanite woman was willing to receive any of the 'bread’ that was meant for the ‘children’ of Israel so her daughter could be healed. (Matt 15:21-28)

4. Gentiles were so hungry for the message and power of the kingdom that Jesus fed 4,000 of them with only seven loaves of bread after they had been with him three days. (Matt 15:29-38)

5. Jesus warned his disciples to beware of the ‘yeast’ of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matt 16:5-12)

Far from idealizing Jews over Gentiles, the story of the Canaanite woman is part of the larger story about God’s magnificent generosity and grace overflowing to outsiders who were hungry for the message and power of his kingdom. It reminds us that all of us are ‘dogs,’ undeserving outsiders who have been shown tremendous favour, not to settle for scraps of bread from God’s grace and goodness, but to sit at his table and feast as adopted sons and daughters. It also reminds us that God desires for more people (including those we might consider undeserving) to feast with us at the same table!